Air pollutants
Measurement head for determining fine dust concentrations
Air pollutants constitute a harm to the environment and human health. Accordingly, European directives have been converted into national legislation defining limiting and threshold values for selected air pollutants in order to protect human health and vegetation.
Several measurement cross-sections are maintained by the Federal Highway Research Institute on heavily travelled motorways to acquire and evaluate air pollution data on these roads. Levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone (O3) and fine dust (PMx) are measured continuously on these roads and compared with other influences like meteorological factors, traffic volumes and vehicle speeds.
The measurement results are incorporated into the Federal Highway Research Institute's research activities, emission calculation models and, ultimately, environmental protection directives and regulations.